Spark of the Revolution
by BossTossx
Summary: This is a quick story I wrote about the Circle of Magi. Hope you enjoy it.


Archades wanted to get out. The Circle of Magi was a prison built and operated by the Chantry, the church, specifically designed for mages. Mages of the Circle could spend their entire lives in the tower, never once leaving its walls. The Chantry had deemed it too dangerous to let mages leave. It didn't matter that the Chantry could use the mages blood, taken from them the first time they entered the tower, and stored in a glass vial called a phylactery, to track the mages across any distance. It didn't matter that the templars could use their powers to drain the mages magic. It was too dangerous. The Chantry feared magic, and thus they sought to conquer it through the mages it was channeled through.

Archades wanted to get out. He hated it here. He was tired of walls, tired of never seeing the outside, never getting to feel the breeze. He was tired of being forced to listen to sermons where the sisters, the priestesses, told him his ability was a sin, that his entire existence was a sin, he was tired of the templar's blank helmets.

The helmets… no templar was without one at any time while they were in the walls of the Circle of Magi. The helmets made them seem less human. You never knew what they were thinking; it was like they were suits of armor, always watching you to see if you slipped up. Archades hated the helmets.

Archades passed a group of apprentices while walking through the halls of the tower. Ah, the apprentices, not yet bitter by the experiences of the fate awaiting them, eager to learn all they could so they could become full mages after the harrowing.

The harrowing, it was the final test that an apprentice mage must take to become a full member of the Circle, and it was perhaps the greatest reason that Archades hated the templars and the Chantry. It was also the Chantry's greatest argument to lock the mages up here.

The reason that the Chantry was so afraid of magic was not what they thought that the mages would do with it, though that was a part, it was not that they wanted to have the mages under their control, though that was also a part. The real reason that the Chantry locked up the mages in this prison was because the mages could become possessed by demons if their will was not strong enough to resist. And thus the reason for the harrowing… it was a ritual, forced upon the mages by the Chantry, in which the apprentice's mind was forced into the realm in which the demons resided. There he would have to face a demon and resist it and its temptations. If they came back alive, and alone, they would be welcomed into the Circle with open arms by the mages, if not, they would be taken care of, the templars would make sure of it. The problem was that less than half survived, sometimes the templars did not wait the whole time allotted for the mage to succeed before "doing their duty to the Maker."

If apprentices didn't want to undergo the harrowing, then they had another option available to them. One that was, in Archades opinion, worse than death. They could undergo a form of lobotomy and become a tranquil. A tranquil was someone without emotions, or the ability to use magic, and thus become immune to being possessed.

Archades wanted to get out, and he didn't feel like escaping alone. It was time for someone to make a change. It was time for the Chantry to back off and let the mages govern and police themselves. It was time for revolution.

Archades ended his inner thoughts as he came upon his destination. The office of the First Enchanter, the leader of the Circle of Magi, a mostly powerless position supposed to make the magi feel better about themselves and their situation.

The current first enchanter was an old woman by the name of Ophelia. As he entered her office he saw her standing behind her desk with ten to twelve other high ranking mages in the room. This was the inner circle of the revolution, the spark that would light the fire. It was time for revolution, and these men and women would be free, or die trying. They wanted to get out.


End file.
